I’m going to note this off the bat: THEMpeople are not a production crew who simply make beats. After learning about THEMpeople (L Boog, Dough, Zigg, & Mic) through releases with the likes of Chance The Rapper, Kami De Chukwu, Caleb James & other Savemoney members, it could seem easy to reach such a conclusion. When clicking around their tumblr page, one quote immediately stood out.”Using music production to capture the essence of where our generation will fit into the history books of our children, and understanding the significance of eras before that have left a great impression and influence on this nostalgic shift toward reinventing the power of the individual through the arts.”
Immediately you can see the bigger picture focus the team has, which ultimately sees an “Urban Renaissance” (of various arts) bringing mass social change.
After listening to a bevy of releases and patrolling through their various online social networks, it’s clear that the emphasis on bringing real change is a major inspiration for their craft. Without rushing anything they do, their musical reputation reeks of quality. After meeting at Columbia College in 2007, the crew has continually grown and evolved as a pact, each member playing a specific role within the group. “The meaning of the word production is often solely associated with beat making, but in our case production means producers of innovation,” they say.
Many artists say “the music speaks for itself,” in this case their words hold up pretty well. Read on to get the full story on THEMpeople, which I’m happy to say is their first official interview ever. There will be countless more.